Even with the best that Equestrian magical healing could provide, weeks had passed before I had been fit enough to return to the watch house. I had my old rain coat, fedora and sported a snappy goatee beard, a new addition that Meadow had approved of. Eventually !

The familiar building felt oddly unwelcoming to me that morning when I trotted up the steps. Probably my imagination, I wondered, so, putting that line of thought aside, I pushed open the double doors to the foyer. The floor had been scrubbed clean, thank Celestia. Unfortunately for me, the side effect of the strong smelling bleach and pine floor cleaner was an assault on my nose making me sneeze violently.

The ponies at the desks ceased their various tasks and turned to look at the sneezing pony in the doorway. Some new faces in there I noticed, some familiar ones too. The most telling feature was how few of the desks were occupied now, so many of us had been…..lost. Several ponies rushed to up to greet me, their shouts of joy helped lift my heart from the grief of our lost comrades that threatened to overwhelm me.

“Hey every pony the Capn’s back !” Shouted a huge uniformed mare as she grabbed me in her expansive embrace, “Whoops ! Sorry, better watch the wounded warriors ouchies eh ?”. Yule pushed me back with her forelegs and looked me up and down, “Yup, still ugly !”.

“Hey ! You cheeky sod, next time you’re shot I’ll remember that !”, I laughed as more ponies arrived to pat me on the back or shake hooves, happily expressing their relief I was alive and well. The revelry was interrupted by a uniformed mare pushing through the throng and pushing a cup of hot tea into my hooves. “Good to see you back hon’”, Shelly smiled briefly, “Better go see the Chief, he’s waiting in his….” She never got to finish her sentence as a voice boomed down from the balcony, “Captain Fairlight ? My office if you please.”

Shelly gave me an apologetic look as I knocked back the tea in a single gulp turning for the stairs. Trotting up the steps I reached the landing and looked through the chiefs door to see him slowly working at his typewriter. The old bugger had never bothered to employ a secretary to write his reports, instead he insisted on trying to type them himself. It was a painful experience to witness his ham-hoofed attempts and even worse to try to decipher the end product. I suspected Shelly was behind the ‘no secretary’ policy more than her other half. Very protective and jealous mare, Shelly.

I knocked and entered without waiting, the Chief continuing to type….slowly, eventually spinning in his chair to face me. “Good to see you back boy.”, he said in his typical gruff manner. “Chief”, I replied.

Chief Mitre turned in his chair to face the window, parting the blinds with an outstretched hoof. Moments dragged past as he stared out the window, “What happened out there”, he muttered.

“Chief ?” I asked, not quite able to make out his words, it had sounded more like a statement than a question. He spun to face me, reared up and slammed his hooves on the desk. With a hard eyed glare Mitre shouted the next words at me in a way I had never heard from him before, “I said ‘What happened out there’ !? Where the hell are my ponies Captain, why did you hesitate, why didn’t you get out when you had the chance ?”

“Sir, I” I began but was cut off, “You fucked up Captain, you fucked up and ponies were killed. My ponies, your brothers and sisters in the watch, because YOU didn’t keep your shit together !”. I backed up a step under the onslaught, I’d never heard the chief so angry, no, check that…furious.

“I did what I could Chief, you don’t know what it was like in there. I was the pony responsible and I made the call. No pony could have predicted what we would be up against.”, I took a step forward.

“You’re damn right you’re responsible Captain, ponies died, DIED ! on your watch. Do you know how many didn’t come home that night ? Do you have any idea how many of these damned letters I’ve had to write to their families ?”, He waved a hoof towards the typewriter, “how many times do I have to write how sorry I am that their loved ones will never come home again. Goddesses, Fairlight, I’m too old for this shit. Too fucking old by far.”

He looked down at the desk and closed his eyes. I walked up to him and calmed my racing heart, “Chief. Chief, I’m….” He cut me off with a raised hoof, “Your badge.” “I’m sorry, I…Chief ?” I stammered, not quite grasping what the big blue buck had said. “Your badge Fairlight. Please.”

The world of Fairlight the Watch Captain, began to unravel at that very moment. My heart sank and I couldn’t help but hang my head, why was this happening, I’d done everything I could have done hadn’t I ? I kept replaying the nights events in my mind over and over again, but hindsight, as my mother had always told me, was a wonderful thing indeed. I levitated out my battered leather wallet with the Manehatten Watch badge inside. I opened it up and looked at the name underneath engraved on a little silver strip, ‘Captain Fairlight’. I was so proud of that. My mother and father had been ecstatic when they first saw it. Of course, that was years ago when I was simply ‘Watch pony Fairlight’. I felt like a lead weight was in my gut as I placed it reverently on the Chiefs desk.

He sighed and nodded his head solemnly. “Look Fairlight, I take no pride in this. The commissioner wants some pony to take responsibility for this. I’ve tendered my resignation but she won’t accept it. Tells me I’m ‘Too important to the safety of the citizenry of Manehatten’, apparently. She’s read your report and dismissed it as a flight of fancy, an ‘attempt to excuse your incompetence’, she said.” He cleared his throat, “By the Commissioner’s orders, I will have to officially suspend you pending a full investigation by the Equestrian military police”.

“What !” I shouted, indignation raging in my voice, “The Equestrian military police ? Are you bloody well kidding me ? They couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery Chief, and you know it.”

Chief Mitre gave me an inscrutable gaze and I took a breath to calm my flaring nerves. “Never the less Fairlight, as of today, you are off the watch”. He took my badge and slid it into a desk drawer. “I’m sorry Fairlight, give my regards to Meadow”. And there it was, the thump of the desk drawer closing, sounding the end of my proud career in the watch. It was all over, my world, my career….all gone. It didn’t seem….real. I didn’t even notice I’d walked down the stairs until Shelly put a foreleg round me, “I’m sorry honey. Mitre told me about the commissioner, he tried his best for you, he really did…”. “Shelly, can you come up to my office please ?” The chiefs voice called down interrupting her.

Shelly gave me a small apologetic smile and trotted off to her husbands office.

I stood there dumbfounded, the office carrying on around my as if nothing had happened. For that matter, what actually had just happened ? My career, just like that, was over, because some motherbucking ‘commissioner’ had wanted to publicly execute some pony for the debacle at the wharf. That was it, I was the stooge, the scapegoat for it all. What in Equestria was I going to do now ?

I took a step towards the exit, wondering just how I was going to break the news to Meadow when a voice stopped me in my tracks, “Watch Captain Fairlight ?”. The voice emanated from a large orange pony in a knee length black coat and black glasses. A smart black trilby hat completed the ensemble. My eyes must have been like saucers as I took in the sight, “Er, yes ?” was all I could manage. “Come with me please”, he said and without waiting to see if I would follow, turned and headed for the rear entrance to the watch building.

Still somewhat numb from my meeting with the Chief, I blindly followed the odd stallion who stopped abruptly in front of a dark blue, fully enclosed chariot pulled by two more ponies, pegasi, dressed identically to him. ‘Must be the in fashion’, I wondered, ‘mysterious chic’. At least I still had my sense of humour, much bloody good that was going to do me.

The black clad pony opened the door and waved me inside. Closing it smartly behind himself, he sat down on the bench seat opposite me and I felt the chariot lift off the ground. There were windows in the chariot but there was no way in Equestria I was looking out of them, I’m sure the black coated stallion wouldn’t want to be spending the rest of the morning cleaning puke out of his nice clothes. I waited for him to speak first. I had a long wait too, the implacable creature just sat there until, eventually, I felt the chariot begin to descend.

Another of the black coated clones opened the door and I was motioned outside onto a wide expanse of flat, white carved stone. The sky was a bright blue, contrasting starkly with my newly acquired goon squad. We were somewhere in the mountains. The rock outcropping we were on was clearly a landing area for chariots, several parked up near to us sporting more of the black coated ponies. My nearest one

held out a foreleg, pointing towards a tunnel entrance leading into the side of the very mountain itself. Silently we all walked together, two of them flanking me on either side. Not sure exactly what they expected me to do, but inquisitiveness was overriding any sense of danger I may have had under normal circumstances. Today, normal didn’t seem to mean too much though.

The huge corridor stretched off into the distance, small horseless buggies hummed past me with their passengers of, you guessed it, the generic black coated ponies. I was beginning to long for someone to wear something at least a little different, maybe even just a colourful hanky in their coat pocket. Couldn’t hurt right ?

“In here”, the lead pony said, halting our party and motioning to a white door in the tunnel wall. I reached out to push it open and was surprised as it slid to one side with a snake like hiss. Hesitantly I walked inside, looking around me at the total lack of decoration. Some pony really had a sense of the dramatic here.

A rear door opened and a cerulean blue mare trotted in wearing a lab coat and sporting a wide smile on her face. The slightly comical appearance was accentuated by a huge pair of glasses as thick as bottle bottoms, perched on her nose. Finally, someone not in black ! And smiling too ! Come to think of it, I wasn’t so sure whether that was reassuring or terrifying.

“Ah, Captain Fairlight.” The pony reached out, grabbing my foreleg and shaking my hoof vigorously, “So good to meet you, so good indeed !” The over enthusiastic mare released my hoof as she pulled a sheet off a table at the far end of the room, motioning me to follow her.

“Amazing isn’t it ? Truly remarkable. Deadly yes, but remarkable none the less”.

The lab-pony adjusted her glasses, all the while peering at a large black arrangement on the table in front of her. Walking over, I recognised that damned thing immediately. How could I forget ? This was the device I’d recovered from the pony on the balcony, the pony I had….had…..Celestia, not now…. I shook my head and looked at the mare, opening my mouth to speak just as another of the black coated ponies entered the room.

“I see you’ve met the Doctor already ?”. The mares lilting voice was almost musical in its tone. “Oh, how silly of me !”, the Doctor said in surprise, turning a wide grin on me and bowing dramatically, “Doctor Bunsen at the your service Watch Captain”.

“Fairlight,” I replied, “I’m no longer in the watch, Doctor. Look, I think you two may have the wrong pony here, I don’t have any authority to speak on the watches behalf”.

Ignoring my words, the new arrival to the room removed her glasses and shook her mane out. She was a pink mare with a white and red striped mane, cut fairly short but stylish. Her blue eyes contrasted attractively with the rest of her and she gave me a look that seemed to penetrate my very soul.

“You are here ‘ex’-Captain Fairlight, as the mistress has commanded it be so.”

Oooh ! Mistress eh ? I was starting to see some domination traits, what with all the sinister black outfits, the white décor and now a ‘mistress’. I was half expecting a pony to appear in a rubber mask.

I waited for her to continue, either that or produce a whip and hoof cuffs.

“What do you know of this thing ex-Captain ?”, she asked.

I looked at the device, recalling how the cursed thing had cut down my friends like so much wheat beneath the farmers scythe. My mood instantly soured.

“It kills ponies”, I told her and turned to meet her gaze.

“Yes ?” She replied sounding slightly irritated.

“Its all in my report ma’am” I replied smartly. She looked at me for a moment longer then walked over to the Doctor who was continuing to prod and measure the device. The Doctor steadfastly ignored the other ponies around her, all the while muttering to herself incoherently, lost in her thoughts.

“I know what’s in your report ex-Captain” the pink mare smiled dangerously, “I want to hear what you saw in your own words. Here and now.”

I drew a breath and told her the full story, not leaving out any details, no matter how small. Hours passed as I talked in that sterile white room. Throughout my recollection, she simply stood there, eyes boring into me with that expressionless gaze of hers, taking in every nuance, every tiny detail.

When I had finally finished, she nodded, holding a hoof up to her ear, nodding again. A TED I presumed, inner ear type, a bit more discreet than the cumbersome things the Watch had on offer.

“Thank you, ‘ex’-Captain,” she said with a smile. I was becoming mightily fed up of her calling me that, “you’ve been of great help to us. More than you could know. The mistress thanks you.”

She held up a small black cube with silver sparkles on it and replaced her dark glasses. “Here”, she said smiling, “Open it, a gift for you for all you’ve done”. A feeling of cold dread came over me, but I did as I was instructed. The small box popped open and there was a blinding white flash. The world vanished.